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The psychologists also support the use of anti-craving medications like naltrexone, which block the brain’s ability to release endorphins and the high of using the substance.

A 2002 study conducted by researchers at the University of New Mexico and published in the journal Addiction showed that motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy and naltrexone, which are often used together, are far more effective in stopping or reducing drug and alcohol use than the faith-and-abstinence-based model of A.A. and other “TSF” — for 12-step facilitation — programs.

Researchers elsewhere have come up with similar findings. In 2006, the Cochrane Library, a health care research group, reviewed four decades of global alcohol treatment studies and concluded, “No experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA or TSF approaches for reducing alcohol dependence or problems.” Despite that research, A.A.’s 12-step model is by far the dominant approach to addiction in America.

prompting addiction experts to make a push for using medications to help people quit or cut down on excessive drinking.

As a result, experts say, the most effective treatments are highly individualized.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved three prescription drugs to treat alcohol problems. But they are seldom used, largely because 12-step programs have dominated the treatment field, NIAAA experts say.

More evidence that the FAA is misguided in their ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in administering the HIMS (Human Intervention Motivation Study) program…

and stressed that “there is no ‘one-size fits-all’ treatment, … [and] efficacy of the treatments may vary from person to person.”

since drug addictions are very common disorders in both general and psychiatric patient populations, she hoped the session succeeded in “conveying some important messages about the treatment of addiction” that psychiatrists could take home and use in their practices.